What is it?

[itstippy]

I just bought this at a thrift shop for $1. I know it's a homemade scoop, but someone spent considerable time and skill to get it "just so". It's too small and sturdy for a dustpan. The scoop part is thick aluminum sheet bent on a bevel and sharpened on the lead edge as if for scraping. The handle is better steel than the "bar iron" we used to make plant hangers in High School shop class. There's small traces of residue in the corners that could be dried mastic maybe? I think it's cool, but if it has a special purpose it would be even cooler.

Ignore the camera dates. My camera is a pain in the wazoo. I have to take the battery out every so often when it freezes up on me, which sets the date back to a random yesteryear. It takes decent pics though.

 

[thickhead]

If that isnt a school metal shop project, then I will be interested.

 

[alex71]

dust pan for your workbench?

 

[bob15]

Looks like a school metal shop project to me. Can be used to remove ashes from wood stove.

 

[itstippy]

All right then - it's a school metal shop project. That explains the obvious effort someone spent selecting the materials, choosing the design, and constructing it. They weren't striving to make a tool "just so" to meet a specialized purpose; they were striving to get a good grade!

It's very well made; they get an "A". It's the most over-engineered and over-built dustpan I've ever seen. Must have been a German shop class instructor.

 

[redwrench60]

That looks like it’ll make a good ash scoop for fireplaces and wood stoves.

 

[outlawz2004]

Looks like a shovel to remove ashes from a wood stove to me.

 

[Buckgnarly]

Looks like an ash shovel, made by a kid in shop class to get a good grade and brownie points with his old man.

 

[itstippy]

Here's the dustpan I made in Jr. High School shop class 45 years ago for comparison. What a mishapen, wimpy piece of tinwork. I think I got a "C+". I feel so inadequate and ashamed!

It's my everyday user work bench dust pan, though.

 

[itstippy]

My Grandfather was a superb basement tinkerer with a depression-era mindset. When my parents bought a house in the early 1960s, Gramps showed up with an ancient rope-start two-stroke lawnmower he'd refurbished. He also brought a gas can made from a 1-gallon Criso oil can, beautifully painted bright red with "Lawnmower Gasoline" hand-lettered in yellow. And an oil measure made from a tiny old tin can. The lawnmower and gas can are long gone, but I found the oil measure in Pa's shop when he passed away and recognized it immediately. It's part of my shop now.

 

[Richard Cranium]

looks to be a well made ash shovel.

 

[laflippin]

I'm gonna guess, pooper-scooper for a Chihuahua owner.

 

[2oolhound]

My Grandfather was a superb basement tinkerer with a depression-era mindset. I found the oil measure in Pa's shop when he passed away and recognized it immediately. It's part of my shop now.

That's a nice keepsake. I may just have to try and make one of those now.

 

[Bighead38]

Your all wrong. It’s obviously a hamburger flipper.

 

[itstippy]

That's a nice keepsake. I may just have to try and make one of those now.

Try these too. A bucket made from an old Goodyear tire, and a motor for my Tinkertoy set made from old clock parts, a jar lid, a doorbell button, a lampshade fillial, . . .

Gramps was ingenious and frugal.

 

[MikeF2316]

I'm gonna guess, pooper-scooper for a Chihuahua owner.

I was thinking for when your cat goes on the carpet. Speaking from personal experience.

 

[TreePointer]

+1 Metal shop ash scoop.